Cornell RPI Watch: The RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is a measure of strength of schedule and how a team does against that schedule. It does not consider the margin of victory, but only whether or not a team won and where the game was played (home/away/neutral court). The formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). (See: CollegeRPI.com for a further explanation of the formula.) The RPI may be the most influential factor in NCAA Tournament seeding. Cornell's RPI rank as of November 25 is No. 161 out of 344 total Division I teams. While neither the Ken Pomeroy or the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, the KenPom.com site ranks Cornell No. 212 in the nation, while the Sagarin Rankings (USA Today) have Cornell at No. 192. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.

Throughout the year we provide periodic updates on Cornell's alumni playing professionally. Below, some updates:

-Jeff Aubry ('99) (Halcones Rojos, LNBP Mexico premier league/Arecibo Capitanes, BSN Puerto Rico premier league)-As of November 25, Aubry is averaging 6.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for Halcones of the LNBP in Mexico, the premier league. Halcones is 20-6 and in 3rd place out of 16 teams in the league. Aubry, a 6'11" center, splits his time in both the Mexican and Puerto Rican professional leagues. A well traveled pro player, Aubry spent several seasons in the NBA D League in the early part of his career with the Fayetteville Patriots and Florida Flame and earned honorable mention all NBA D League in 2002. During his more than a decade of pro experience, Aubry has also played professionally in the ABA (Miami Tropics) and abroad in Puerto Rico (Arecibo, Leones de Ponce, and Santurce, BSN Puerto Rico), Spain (Tarragona, LEB Gold Spain 2nd Division), Mexico (Halcones Rojos and Chihuahua Dorados, LNBP Mexico premier league), Poland (Slask Wroclaw, PLK Poland premier league), Argentina (Libertad Sunchales, Liga A Argentina), Uruguay (Hebraica, LUB Uruguay )and Peru (Alas Peruanas, Peru).

-Louis Dale ('10) (KAOD Dramas, Greece A1 premier league)- As of November 25, Dale is averaging 9.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. KAOD is 3-3 and in 6th place out of 14 teams in the A1. Dale spent his first two professional seasons both in Germany's BBK Bundesliga, the country's premier league with Goettingen.

-Jeff Foote ('10) (Zalgiris, Lithuania LKL premier league/EuroLeague/VTB Russian League)-As of November 25, Foote is averaging 10 points and 8 rebounds per game for Zalgiris in the Lithuanian premier league, the LKL. Zalgiris is 3-0 and in 6th place out of 12 teams in the LKL. Zalgiris is also 6-1 in the 6-team Group C of the EuroLeague. In EuroLeague action, Foote is averaging 4.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. In the Russian VTB League, Zalgiris is 4-1 and in 2nd place out of 10 teams in Group B. Zalgiris is currently ranked #4 in Europe. Prior to the start of the 2012-2013 season, Foote played with the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA Summer League and participated in the team's free agent mini-camp. During 2011-2012, Foote averaged 15.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in the NBA D-League for the Springfield Armor (the Brooklyn Nets' affiliate) after being named a starter at the D-League's All-Star Game during February. Foote finished the D-League season ranked 4th in double-doubles and also 4th in rebounds. Foote averaged 1.0 points and 1.5 rebounds per game in 4 games for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets during a 10-day contract between March 9 and March 19. Foote was ranked by the D-League as its #6 overall NBA prospect. During April he was profiled in a video on NBA.com. He participated in the Portland Trailblazers' 2011-2012 preseason training camp and played the 2011-2012 preseason with with Zastal of the PLK Poland premier league and the full 2010-2011 season in Spain (Melilla, LEB Gold Spain 2nd division) while on loan from Euro League powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel's premier league.

Below is a directory listing of some Twitter feeds associated with the Cornell basketball program.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

CBB, you do realize that fully 75% of the RPI does not reflect a team's winning percentage in any way, right? The RPI is an intellectually dishonest scheme to justify the inclusion of more BCS conference teams in the NCAA tournament because they, almost by definition, have an easier time scheduling high RPI opponents.

Look, I know that you feel compelled to defend every single aspect of Cornell basketball. But surely even you are above using RPI in any rational analytic defense of any team's performance thus far, especially at this early point in the season when RPI is even more meaningless than it is at tournament time.